It was never the act itself but our own understanding of it that defeated us, over and over again. Marisha Pessl More Quotes by Marisha Pessl More Quotes From Marisha Pessl Well, life isn't a cakewalk, is it?! Eighty-nine percent of the world's most valuable art was created by men living in rat-infested flats. You think Velásquez wore Adidas? You think he enjoyed the luxuries of central heating and twenty-four-hour pizza delivery?! Marisha Pessl menartthinking I hate how the people who really get you are the ones you can never hold on to for very long. And the ones who don’t understand you at all stick around. Marisha Pessl hatelongpeople Always live your life with your biography in mind. Marisha Pessl live-your-lifebeerbook Life was a freight train barreling toward just one stop, our loved ones streaking past our windows in blurs of color and light. There was no holding on to any of it, and no slowing it down. Marisha Pessl colorlightpast I'm not afraid of total failure. In the end, we're all just food for worms, so what are we so worried about? Marisha Pessl wormsworriedends He said you couldn't pretend the terrible things in life didn't happen. You can't clean it up. You keep all the refuse and the scars. It's how you learn. And try to make improvements. Marisha Pessl scarthings-in-lifetrying I was aware too how strange adults were, how theirs lives were vaster than they wanted anyone to realize, that they actually stretched on and on like deserts, dry and desolate, with an unpredictable, shifting sea of dunes. Marisha Pessl desertadultssea Within every elaborate lie, a kernel of truth. Marisha Pessl kernellying It's kind of funny...the moments on which life hinges. I think growing up you always imagine your life - your success - depends on your family and how much money they have, where you go to college, what sort of job you can pin down, starting salary...But it doesn't, you know. You wouldn't believe this, but life hinges on a couple of seconds you never see coming. And what you decide in those few seconds determines everything from then on... And you have no idea what you'll do until you're there. Marisha Pessl growing-upcouplejobs But most critically, sweet, never try to change the narrative structure of someone else's story, though you will certainly be tempted to, as you watch those poor souls in school, in life, heading unwittingly down dangerous tangents, fatal digressions from which they will unlikely be able to emerge. Resist the temptation. Spend your energies on your story. Reworking it. Making it better. Marisha Pessl narrative-structuresweetschool Sovereign. Deadly. Perfect. Marisha Pessl sovereignperfect Not returning phone calls is the severest form of torture in the civilized world. Marisha Pessl phone-callsphonesworld Funnily enough, it is the subject one dreads talking about at length one ends up talking about at length, often without the slightest provocation. Marisha Pessl lengthenoughtalking Some people, every now and then, simply had to have One Too Many, go drifty voiced and slouch mouthed, swimming willfully around in their own sadness as if it were hot springs. Marisha Pessl swimmingsadnessspring May you walk a lighted path. May you fight for truth - your truth, not someone else's - and may you understand, above all things, that you are the most important concept, theory, and philosophy I have ever known. Marisha Pessl fightinginspirationphilosophy Well, it doesn't look good. Makes me look like one of those unloved latchkey children they make after-school specials about." "Don't sell yourself short. You're more Masterpiece Theatre. Marisha Pessl fatherchildrenschool Happiness is a hound dog in the sun. We aren't on Earth to be happy, but to experience incredible things. - Hannah Schneider Marisha Pessl earthdogsun It was what accidental deaths did to people, made everybody's sea floor irregular and uneven, causing tidal currents to collide, surge upward, thereby resulting in small yet volatile eddies churning at everybody's surface. (In the more dangerous cases, it created a lasting whirlpool in which the strongest swimmers could drown.) Marisha Pessl swimmerseapeople It’s hard, in America, not to equate ‘happiness’ with ‘things’. Marisha Pessl hardamerica Those around you can have their novellas, sweet, their short stories of cliché and coincidence, occasionally spiced up with tricks of the quirky, the achingly mundane, the grotesque. A few will even cook up Greek tragedy, those born into misery, destined to die in misery. But you, my bride of quietness, you will craft nothing less than epic with your life. Out of all of them, your story will be the one to last. Marisha Pessl epicgreeksweet
